“I still feel that the impact of those cuts have not been felt, so we need to work together to face those challenges.

Balancing the books is important – that we don’t go into the red and we work on a cross-party basis.

“Balancing the books is important – that we don’t go into the red and we work on a cross-party basis.

“We have a lack of affordable housing. Growth is not what it should be. Infrastructure is a massive issue as well.

“Devolution is also a massive issue. People don’t understand what devolution is all about.”

And in terms of reflecting the borough’s diverse community he said he wanted Kirklees Council to address issues of fairness, equality and respect and to be the best council by 2020.

Kirklees Council Conservative member David Hall.

In the light of the huge weight of responsibility facing Clr Pandor, Conservative leader Clr David Hall urged him to be up-front with the programme he hoped to deliver, and warned against slipping into partisanship.

“Are we to suppose that there will be no change in direction for the council and that things will continue as they are: no change in policy, no change in direction?

“We need the confidence that his term of office will not be conducted according to any personal debts that have to be paid because he’s not only answerable to his own party. He needs to show that he will act as a figurehead and an exemplar.”

He added: “These are the things that the residents are worried about. Yet the only reaction we seem to have had from the Labour administration over the past few years is political posturing and inactivity on many fronts.

“Before this group can endorse his candidacy he’ll need to show that he has got the mettle to put the interests of the borough above the interests of his own party.”